A Tribute to Steve Jobs – The Geeks Club Team

06/10/2011 will be remembered as the day when the tech world woke up to sad morning. A very sad one indeed. This morning saw many in tears over the shock they just got and others wondering of this did really happen! Apple Founder, ex-CEO and chairman, Steve Jobs passed away this morning due to pancreatic cancer at an age of 56. Nitin Agarwal, the co-founder of this site proudly displayed a Steve Jobs photo as his Facebook Profile display pic till yesterday. And today, it’s down. No surprise that Agarwal actually cried on hearing this piece of news. And so did millions of others around the globe who consider him as an iCon. Even me.

Logically Steve Jobs may have died. But he is alive among all of us. And it is this which shall take Apple forward, which wouldn’t have been a reality today without this great man. His every show on the stage wasn’t just a presentation. It was an inspiration. I still remember those heavy words he said during the commencement speech at Stanford 2005 –

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.”

So true.

“Steve, thank you for being a mentor and a friend. Thanks for showing that what you build can change the world. I will miss you.” – Mark Zuckerberg

“Steve was among the greatest of American innovators – brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it.”– Barack Obama

At an Apple Product Launch in 2011, he ended the presentation with “One more thing”. These three were the strongest words ever. And deep down inside, they actually meant a lot. And maybe now, we may agree to it. In an interview to Business Week in 2004, Steve Jobs had said :

“Innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or because they realized something that shoots holes in how we’ve been thinking about a problem. It’s ad hoc meetings of six people called by someone who thinks he has figured out the coolest new thing ever and who wants to know what other people think of his idea.

And it comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don’t get on the wrong track or try to do too much. We’re always thinking about new markets we could enter, but it’s only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important.”

All the top head honchos were filled with grief upon hearing this sad piece of news.

He not only gave me a lot of personal advice and encouragement, he showed all of us how innovation can change lives.” – Jerry Yang, Yahoo!

“For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honor” – Bill Gates

It surely was, Steve. You shall stay in our hearts and souls forever. We all miss you.

Rest in Peace. :’(

We are giving away 3 copies of Steve Jobs Autobiography. If you want to know more about this legend take a look!